Too Cute For Words

I caught Kimberly falling asleep on the couch this morning. Notice how her hands get lower and lower the more she relaxes. It was super cute!

Is It Just Me?

I surprised a friend the other day when I told her I didn't like babies. "I wish my babies could be born at 18 months," I said.

"What? You don't like babies?!"

It's not that I don't like babies. They are fun to snuggle with, and it's really calming to watch them sleep. But I have babies who cry for hours on end for no obvious reason. Then after an exhausting day of listening to near-constant crying, I have to get up several times a night with that baby.

So, no. Not really. Baby is not my favorite stage of childhood. I love the toddler stage. I love when they start saying funny things. I love watching them learn to toddle along. I love the toddler run. Sure we have to wade through those months of tantrums, but I'd rather deal with a 10 or 20 minute tantrum than the aforementioned crying. It's not even a competition in my mind.

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Earlier that same day, a different friend was equally surprised when I told her how much I hate being pregnant. "Really!?" She exclaimed. "You don't love feeling the baby move? You don't love the miracle of giving birth? You don't love knowing that you created something so amazing?"

My response? Sure I think all of those things are great. But to me, pregnancy equals 5 months of puking, 1 month of feeling decent at best, followed by 3 months of contractions.

I think it would be awesome to go from the "Let's have a baby" mindset to "Yay our baby is in Nursery."

Am I alone in this? Is there anyone else who feels this way about pregnancy and newborns? Just curious.

Tooth #1: Gone

Well, it happened. Five years and four months after Makayla's first tooth poked through her little 4 1/2-month-old gums, it finally came out. She has been wiggling it for weeks. And over the past few days when it has been literally hanging, she has run to the mirror every few minutes to see if it has fallen out yet.

This morning it looked like it would fall out if she laughed too hard, so I grabbed it by a tissue and gently yanked it out.

To her complete surprise it "didn't hurt at all!"

"I know. I told you it wouldn't hurt."

Laughing she said, "I didn't believe you. I thought it was gonna hurt a LOT!"

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I drove her to school and while I watched her I had to laugh as she, with a big grin, walked up to every person she knew. And a few people she didn't know. She's pretty proud of her new smile.

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I admit, I did tear up a little. Don't make fun! I always get a little sentimental when I realize that my baby is growing up. I love it, but it also makes me just a bit sad.

A few years ago I could never understand people who said they wanted to keep their kids little forever. I thought they must be crazy. Little kids are hard, I thought. I guess now I understand what they were talking about.

A Reason to Celebrate

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Kimberly FINALLY got her first tooth! But do you think she would let me get a picture of this momentous occasion?

Not on your life!

Goal: Week 4

Wow! I have really loved my goal from last week. I love making myself take the time to read everyday. Sometimes it's a novel. Other times it's a cookbook. Whatever I am reading, I love taking the time to do it. It's a goal that I definitely want to keep going.

For this week, my goal is to finish rotating my girls' clothes. I really hate doing this. I hate getting them out of storage, searching through to figure out what will fit who and so on. This is not actually as easy as it sounds.

Here is one problem. Makayla has long legs and a short body. Ellie has a long body and short legs. So while Makayla was wearing 3T shirts, she needed 5T pants. Now Ellie is at the stage where she needs 5T shirts, but can still fit into 3T pants. It's an absolute nightmare tyring to sift through everything trying to find old clothes of Makayla's in the right season to fit Ellie now and for this coming summer.

Another problem is that I got lazy when I was putting away baby clothes after I had Ellie, so none of my boxes are labeled right for baby clothes. One box I looked through was labeled 12 months, but it contained 3T and miscellaneous 6-9 month clothes. The very same 6-9 month clothes that I was looking for 2 months ago when Kimberly needed them. Grrr!! I'm so annoyed with this process that on several occasions I have threatened to give away all 20 boxes of girls clothes in our storage unit and start fresh for all three girls.

I am getting really tired of having piles and piles of clothes and empty buckets and boxes in my not-so-big living room. So I am really determined to get this mess figured out. Ugh! What a nightmare!

A Matter of Teeth

Matter is neither created nor destroyed. I remember learning this in Physics when I was in high school. Or maybe it was Chemistry? Well, it was some science class that I took some time in my life.

Anyway, I always think about that when I lose weight. I wonder who in the world has to be gaining these pounds that I'm losing. Or the other way around, who is losing weight that I am gaining it? Obviously, I know this is not exactly how things work, but I always think of that.

But lately, I've been thinking about this in relation to dentistry. Here's why. Makayla has 6 teeth that are loose. Very loose. Every morning when she wakes up she runs to the mirror to see if any of them have magically fallen out.

Today I was inspecting Kimberly's mouth for new teeth. (At 13 months she is still completely toothless.) I noticed that she has 6 teeth that are very close to coming in. I can see them, but they just haven't quite broken through the skin yet.

So, if matter can not be created or destroyed, does that mean that Kimberly can't get her teeth until Makayla loses hers? Because if that is the case, I am seriously considering getting out the pliers when M gets home from school. It's making me a little crazy that Kimberly doesn't have any teeth yet. I'm definitely ready for her to be able to bite her own food instead of me having to cut it up all the time. I know that sounds so lazy of me. But that's because I am. Lazy, that is.

It's Goal Time Again

Last year I set a goal for myself to read at least 30 books. I almost succeeded. I read 28 books with 8 of those being read in the month of February. I think back to what was going on then. Oh right! I had a 1-month-old baby who nursed for 30 minutes every 3 hours. I couldn't really do anything else while I was feeding her, so I always kept a book nearby. That's 4 hours every day that I got to read. Now the only reading I have time for is the 15 minutes every night where I am helping Makayla read Mac and Tab. Hardly a stimulating read for me!

I miss reading. I love being whisked away on an adventure with fascinating characters to places very different from where I currently reside.

With that being said, my goal for this week is to set aside between 20 and 30 minutes every day to sit and read. I know this will make it even harder to get to bed on time (a goal which I am still struggling to achieve), but I need to do this for me. So that I can be Laura and not just Mommy.

Maybe She Isn't So Bad After All

Last week I was cursing Jillian Michaels. Her 30-day shred was kicking my butt. I was in all sorts of pain. So, I took the weekend off to let my body rest a little. The bad thing, though, is that while I was not exercising, I was making really poor food choices.

After a weekend full of bad eating (Olive Garden Alfredo on Saturday and all sorts of junk yesterday at the Super Bowl party), I was nervous to step on the scale today. Good news/bad news is that I didn't lose any weight. BUT I didn't gain anything either.

I admit that I was a little disappointed about not losing, but very grateful that I hadn't gained any after the weekend. Then I got out the measuring tape. Last Monday I took five measurements: bust, waist, hips, left & right thighs. And guess what? I lost a total of 5.25 inches over those 5 measurements! I am ecstatic!! I even cried I was so happy.

I worked so hard last week. I had sweat pouring down my face after each work out. I absolutely HATE sweating, so that was a big thing for me to overcome. To see actual results from working so hard gives me the motivation to keep going and work even harder this week! I know the likelihood of losing another 5 inches this week is very slim (no pun intended), but I'm excited to try.

AND. . . . .

I have committed myself to running a 5K race in June. I'm a little (okay, a lot) nervous because I've never done anything like this before. Any tips for training from all you runners out there?

Highlights of My Day

In no particular order:

Spending the whole day with Kasey. We just ran errands and did chores around the house, but I loved just having him around me. I miss him so much when he is gone.

A very sore me chasing a very naked Ellie around the house while she giggles, "Look Dad! I'm naked!"

Watching Kimberly learn how to stand up by herself. I love watching her stick her little bum in the air before she carefully lifts her hands off the ground, regains her balance, and takes off after her sisters as fast as she can go. So Cute!

This one is from a few days ago, but it stills makes me smile. I made bread bowls to eat our chili in on Monday night. All through dinner Makayla kept exclaiming, "This is so cool, Mom!" "What a great idea!" "Can we eat these every night?"

Jillian Michaels, I Loathe You!

Every muscle in my body is screaming for mercy right now! Yesterday I started Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. Oh man! She is brutal! BRUTAL!!

Muscles ache that I didn't even know I had. Even the muscles in my face hurt from twisting and contorting in pain from the rigorous workout.

Reaching up to get a cup out of the cupboard is torture. Squatting down to get a mixing bowl? Pure agony.

I want to quit so bad! I want to curl up in a ball on my bed and weep for the next 3 days until I feel better.

BUT I know that if I keep going, keep working through the stiff and sore muscles, that I will get stronger and thinner and healthier. So my goal for this week is to keep up with my workout even though I may want to quit. My regimen, which is pretty intense, goes like this: Monday, Wednesday and Friday work out with the ladies at church from 9am-10am. We jog/sprint, run ladders, lift weights (in the form of our 20-lb babies. haha) and work on our abs (at this point the only proof that I have abs is that they hurt so dang much!). Monday-Friday I do my 20 minute Jillian Michaels DVD with a friend. I'm undecided about working out on Saturday. On the one hand, it would be nice to have a 2 day break. But on the other hand, exercising on Saturday would get me to my goal that much faster. Any opinions on that?

Oh, and since I suck at getting to bed by 10:30, let alone 10, I am going to keep working on that for this week, too. I will probably need all the extra rest I can get!!